Shirobako Episode 1 (First Impression)

Sweet! The other show that I was looking forward to the most this season has FINALLY come out. I am referring of course, to Shirobako, or which I’ve been calling this whole time (the anime show about making anime). So the question is, was it any good? Well let’s roll our sleeves up and get this going! There’s a LOT of stuff that happened in this show, so i’ll do my best to make it as concise as possible.

The show opens up with a group of five girls in high school. They are the animation club, and their goal is to make a short animated feature for their school festival.

After working tirelessly they manage to finish it though and they premiere it at the school festival. Cut forward to their graduation. (Phew. thank god. Thought i’d have ANOTHER school anime on my hands)

It seems that 3 of the 5 are graduating as they head off in their own respective fields in anime, promising one day they’ll all make an anime movie together.

Cut to two and a half years later. (Damn this series is really on the move isn’t it?) Where we see the blonde haired girl from 2 years ago is now an Animation runner for a company (huh..having the strangest sense of deja vu from another review I did…) and she decides to drag race another Animation runner. Why? I have no fucking clue. Maybe since I left Japan more and more people got into drifting?

She eventually beats the guy to the animator’s house to pick up the key animations she’s been working on.

Hm…okay, we’re like 6 minutes into this show and we haven’t had ANY kind of fanservice! What gives?

Wait. What’s that? It’s not that kind of show? Um..okay then, can we at least have some breast envy?

Ah, there we go. Now where was I?

Oh yeah. So in an insanely quick montage they tell us who everyone is. I mean like… in 15 second they label 20 people’s jobs and names. Dude. I can’t even remember the main girl’s name. You think I can remember all those names? Pfff. good luck.

When she gets back to the office she sees that everyone is watching the premier of the show they’ve been working on “Exodus”.

So the next thing that happens is the next day, they’re looking over the footage for episode 3 when they realize that a big chunk of key animation is missing.

The reason for this is because one of the animators is notoriously lazy and didn’t finish his work. But for some reason they blame the guy who was supposed to PICK UP the keys. meh. I don’t get that.

since the key animator’s being a douche, they have to find someone else to draw this segment of animation or they’re screwed. Eventually they go to the big boob mcgee from earlier, and she finishes it in time.

We find out though that due to the episode 3 error, episode 4 might be in trouble. And the episode ends with the main girl finding somebody on the ground of an apartment.

Wait. what?

So yeah, that’s episode 1 of Shirobako. Now of course the question is, what did I think of it? I have to say. I ADORE this show. If anyone read my Animation Runner Kuromi review, they know I love this kind of thing. And really, all this is, is Kuromi but with 5 of them instead of 1, and taking  a slightly more serious tone.

I like all the characters that I’ve been introduced so far, but the problem is, THERE’S SO MANY OF THEM. No joke there’s 20+ characters and i’m having trouble remembering 1/2 of them. People appear in scenes and I swear that it’s a different character when it turns out he popped up in an earlier scene.

Even though that’s the case, All the characters are still fun. There’s no character I really “Don’t like” as of right now. And while they’re playing it more seriously, I don’t think they’re going to make it TOO TOO serious.

All in all, the animation is very fluid and nice, the voice acting is pretty good, the premise is one that I love, and even just the daily workings of an anime company, while it might seem boring to others, is VERY interesting to me. I am definitely going to keep watching this show. And I would LOVE to keep blogging about it.

The one thing I’ve noticed about this show is that they tend to keep the women….less than full figured in this show. but when they do….hot damn.

(snaps back into concentration) oh, what? oh sorry. um score. yeah.

Head: (Plot) 9

Eye: (art) 8

Heart: (squishy feels) 7 (let’s see where it goes)

Watching; YES

Blogging: YES

-Hideki

 ~*~

Eva’s First Impression

SHIROBAKO is about life in the Anime Production. I especially love these types of shows because it gives us a little bit of an inside look. I felt this episode really did a fantastic job showing just how stressful and how much higher the stakes are raised once the show stars airing. I found that they executed the tension involved with the anime premiering extremely well as while I can sense the excitement, there is also the anxiety and nervousness of uncertainty of how the audience will like it and how it’s going to fare against the many other titles airing in the season. To make an anime, it is quite a tedious process and if one or more don’t follow through with the task their were supposed to do, it screws up the entire schedule and can even puts the production into jeopardy. Today’s fault of chaos was Taro, the Production Assistant, who was responsible for assigning an Key Animator for the climax that takes place in Exodus’ episode 3. He had ended up entrusting the duty to a particular individual that is known to be very slow (and has been warned of) and of course the next thing you know that said Key Animator tells him he has to find someone else because they know they couldn’t get the job done. Instead of informing the team the minute he realized that they were in trouble (which was during the premiere party), he kept his mouth shut about it until the mishap was revealed during the Rush Room Session. God I wanted to slap him, tch… he even had the nerve to pester others to do their job faster… As result of his mishaps since they felt they couldn’t let the rookies do the key animation of the climax, they resorted to asking Segawa to do it (a crazy request really because it’s so last minute). As result of it, while she managed to get the job done, Segawa came crashing down with a fever of either from sickness or overworking herself. Goodness gracious!

While I am absolutely LOVING SHIROBAKO, I know this is not the show for me to cover. The amount of information is incredibly overwhelming because of the fast pace, making it difficult to take down notes. This is the show that I will simply sit back and enjoy, absorbing the new knowledge, that I am sure will create a whole new perspective of how I view and probably review anime as well as appreciating the blood and sweat put into each and every series (even if they may not be the greatest).

Possibility of Blogging: No
Possibility of Watching: Guaranteed

—-Midnight’s review—–

What is it with this show and doughnuts?! Seriously, it felt like one big anime about making anime Ad for doughnuts. I might go down to Dunkin’s later that’s how much they talk about doughnuts! Doughnut advertisements aside, this show was really cute! The animation makes everyone so cute, my only problem will be picking out a favorite character from this large cast of characters.
So far, it’s the red haired chick who wants to be a voice actress. [“But Midnight, she was hardly in the episode!”], I KNOW! but I thought she was cute and she reminds me of Kyoko from Madoka and I love Kyoko. Besides, we share the same dream so I connect with her on a base level.

This show has a lot of high energy which makes it fun,  this will be a fun show that will give us a look into the high stress job it takes to bring us our favorite animes. The sad thing here is that I’m just pretty sure I wouldn’t find much to say about each episode. It won’t stop me from watching it and enjoying it but I doubt i’ll cover this. I’ll leave this one to you Hideki.

Probability of watching: High
probability of blogging: NOPE

~Midnight